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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 28.09.04 14:23l 115 Lines 5631 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Press release, 27th September
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Sent: 040928/1110Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:48648 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
NEWS RELEASE: 2004-238
Mars Orbiter Sees Rover Tracks Among Thousands of New Images
September 27, 2004
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, starting its third mission extension this
week after seven years of orbiting Mars, is using an innovative
technique to capture pictures even sharper than most of the more than
170,000 it has already produced.
One dramatic example from the spacecraft's Mars Orbiter Camera shows
wheel tracks of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and the rover
itself. Another tells scientists that no boulders bigger than about 1 to
2 meters (3 to 7 feet) are exposed in giant ripples created by a
catastrophic flood.
Those examples are available online at:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/09/27/ and:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs. In addition, about 24,000 newly catalogued
images that Mars Global Surveyor took between October 2003 and March
2004 have been added to the Mars Orbiter Camera Image Gallery at
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/. These include additional pictures of
the Mars Exploration Rover sites seen from orbit.
"Over the past year and a half, the camera and spacecraft teams for Mars
Global Surveyor have worked together to develop a technique that allows
us to roll the entire spacecraft so that the camera can be scanned in a
way that sees details at three times higher resolution than we normally
get," said Dr. Ken Edgett, staff scientist for Malin Space Science
Systems, San Diego, Calif., which built and operates the Mars Orbiter
Camera. The technique adjusts the rotation rate of the spacecraft to
match the ground speed under the camera.
"The image motion compensation is tricky and the spacecraft does not
always hit its target. However, when it does, the results can be
spectacular," Edgett said.
The Mars Orbiter Camera acquires the highest resolution images ever
obtained from a Mars-orbiting spacecraft. During normal operating
conditions, the smallest objects that can be resolved on the martian
surface in these images are about 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) across.
With the adjusted-rotation technique, called "compensated pitch and roll
targeted observation," objects as small as 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) can be
seen in images from the same camera. Resolution capability of 1.4 meters
(4.6 feet) per pixel is improved to one-half meter (1.6 feet) per pixel.
Because the maneuvers are complex and the amount of data that can be
acquired is limited, most images from the camera are still taken without
using that technique.
Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. After
gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit, it began systematically
mapping the planet in March 1999. The Mars Orbiter Camera's narrow-angle
camera has now examined nearly 4.5 percent of Mars' surface, including
extensive imaging of candidate and selected landing sites for surface
missions. The Mars Orbiter Camera also includes a wide-angle camera that
observes the entire planet daily.
"Mars Global Surveyor has been productive longer than any other
spacecraft ever sent to Mars, since it surpassed Viking Lander 1's
longevity earlier this year and has returned more images than all past
Mars missions combined," said Tom Thorpe, project manager for Mars
Global Surveyor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The mission will complete its 25,000th mapping orbit on Oct. 11.
Principal goals for the orbiter's latest mission extension, beginning
Oct. 1, include continued weather monitoring to form a continuous set of
observations with NASA's next Mars mission, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,
scheduled to reach the red planet in 2006; imaging of possible landing
sites for the Phoenix 2007 Mars Scout lander and 2009 Mars Science
Laboratory rover; continued mapping and analysis of key sedimentary-rock
outcrop sites; and continued monitoring of changes on the surface due to
wind and ice. Because the narrow-angle camera has imaged only a small
fraction of the surface, new discoveries about surface features are
likely to come at any time. The extension runs two years, through
September 2006, with a budget of $7.5 million per year.
Dr. James Garvin, NASA's chief scientist for Mars and the Moon, said,
"Mars Global Surveyor continues to catalyze new science as it explores
Mars at scales compatible with those that our Mars Exploration Rovers
negotiate every day, and its extended mission will continue to set the
stage for upcoming observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."
Additional information about Mars Global Surveyor is available online
at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/. In addition to semi-annual releases
of large collections of archived pictures, the Mars Orbiter Camera team
posts a new image daily and last year began soliciting public
suggestions for camera targets on Mars. These materials can be viewed
online at: http://www.msss.com. For more information about NASA and other
space science programs on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Mars Global Surveyor mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington, D.C. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, which built and operates the spacecraft.
###
73, Alan, ZL2VAL @ ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC (Sysop)
IP: zl2val@qsl.net
APRS: 3906.34s/17406.45e]
Message timed: 23:06 on 2004-Sep-28
Message sent using WinPack-AGW V6.80, by Roger Barker G4IDE, SK 9/9/04.
Old Age
-------
Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called
witchcraft... Today, it's called golf.
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